I usually have a big old section of notes here, but I seem to have misplaced
them, so you'll just have to do without for a while.
Emphasis to words is given by a "_".
Foreign languages are offset by "/" at the start and end.
The majority of characters in this story are owned and/or copyrighted by
Naoko Takeuchi, DiC, Disney, Bandai, Toei Animation, Seagull Entertainment,
Graz Entertainment, Sunrise, Mixxzine, Saban, Playmates, and probably a half
dozen other corporations which I've neglected to mention. I should add for
the benefit of their respective legal departments that I make no claim to
the characters which the previously listed or referred to companies have
copyrighted, and I am not making any money from the distribution of these
stories (if I were, do you think I'd still be working at McDonald's?)
The characters which do not appear in either the Sailor Moon or Ronin
Warriors shows are mine. Touch them and die.
Now that that's out of the way...
Crystal Scouts #1
"Shattered Dreams"
Nature was putting on one of its great spectacles that everyone
should see at least once in their lives.
It was twilight, that strange grayish color that everything turns
a few moments before dawn. The moon had fallen below the horizon, and now
the sun burst into view, tinting everything a beautiful reddish-gold shade
which reflected off the city on the shore.
The land had once been known as the Land of the Rising Sun, and the
city had once been its capital, Tokyo. Now, nearly two thousand years later
(3748, for those familiar with the old Earth system--but who counted when
you aged only one year for every hundred?) the city had been rebuilt,
entirely in the crystal which lent the city its name--Crystal Tokyo.
Crystal Tokyo was a capital city as well--but its dominion was all that the
rising sun touched. In other words, the entire Earth.
The ruler of Crystal Tokyo watched the scene, from her Crystal
Palace situated directly in the center of the city. Neo-Queen Serenity was
awake earlier than she had ever been in her long life--and for no reason at
all, a feat which would have surprised her closest friends--the ones who had
known her since she was a junior-high student of fourteen. She smiled as
the sun finally rose completely above the horizon and returned to her bed,
where her husband, King Endymion, still dozed peacefully. She pulled the
covers back up over her head and sighed contentedly before falling back
asleep.
Today was a beautiful day.
In another part of the Crystal Palace, a girl snored away in her
pink bed, with her gray cat sleeping near the foot of the bed. Four other
girls stood just outside her bedroom door.
"Remind me again why we're here," the girl with rust-colored
shoulder-length hair said.
The girl with a light brown braid reaching midway down her back,
who was leaning casually against the wall, answered her question in a soft
and calm, almost bored, voice. "Because, Jessica, it'll take her about two
hours to wake up anyway. We may as well start now so we can leave on time."
The bluish-gray short-haired girl turned to the fourth girl. "Do
you want to wake her up or do I get to do it?"
"I'll do it," the fourth girl, who had raven-black hair which fell
past her waist, replied. "You were a little--rough--last time."
"I was not."
"Cody, you flipped her bed over."
"At least I didn't flip it on top of her, Rachel."
The girl with the braid slowly stood up, revealing she was at least
half a head taller than any of the others, when she chose to be. "Would you
two quit arguing and wake her up before I do it myself?"
"No problem, Melinda," Rachel said, quickly easing into the sleeping
girl's room. The girl's loud snoring made Rachel's stealth training
unnecessary, but she used it anyway, partly out of habit and partly because
she didn't want to wake the cat.
Rachel silently sidled up to the side of the girl's bed. She
pinched the girl's nose shut to stop the snoring and to bring her out of
deep sleep. Rachel then shook the girl's shoulder, quickly releasing the
girl's nose before she returned to consciousness.
"Rini," Rachel finally spoke. "Rini, time to get up."
"Huh--wha?" Rini mumbled, sitting bolt upright and inadvertently
kicking the cat off the bed in the process. "Oh--Rachel."
"We're going to the beach today," Rachel said. "Remember?"
"I know that," Rini said, a little irritated, as she rubbed her
eyes. "I set my alarm," she said, pointing at a clock shaped like a rabbit.
As if on cue, it began to buzz.
"Well, since you're up now, you might want to get ready. We'll be
waiting for you outside." Just as silently as she had entered, Rachel was
gone.
Rini sat on the edge of her bed, putting her long pink hair into a
style best described as twin ponytails with meatballs at the top. "Diana!"
she called. "Diana!"
Her gray cat limped near her bed, favoring its left front paw.
"There you are, Diana," Rini said. "Are you coming with us?"
"No, Rini," the cat replied. "You know I don't like water."
"Your loss," Rini said as she tossed her beach supplies--sunscreen,
towel, cover-up--into her duffel bag and put on her surf slippers and
sunglasses. "See you later!"
Diana watched her leave, then curled up on the floor to take a
catnap. I wonder if Serena ever did this to Mom all those years ago, she
thought before drifting off...
It was now ten o'clock, and the rulers of Crystal Tokyo were now
officially awake. Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion had just enjoyed
a late breakfast and had seen their daughter, Rini, off on a trip to the
beach with her friends.
Neo-Queen Serenity smiled to herself as she traveled across the
palace, deep into one of its strongholds. Rini had turned out rather
well, a far cry from the nine-(okay, nine hundred two)year-old brat she
had been when they had first met. Admittedly, Rini was alone, scared,
and friendless at the time, but it was even more difficult to meet your
future daughter when you were only fourteen...
Neo-Queen Serenity had entered a room into which few were allowed,
much less allowed to know existed. Those who did know about it had
nicknamed it the Trophy Room. It was a shrine to the Sailor Scouts.
Replicas of the Sailors' uniforms hung from the walls, from the
original uniforms to the super uniforms to the super star uniforms, and
even including Sailor Pluto's ancient Silver Millennium-era costume.
Lining the walls, in velvet-lined jewelry cases, were all the Sailors' old
transformation pens, which had eventually given way to gemstones. For
Neo-Queen Serenity, however, one uniform held special significance.
This uniform consisted of a dark blue skirt and collar, red boots
and bows, and a golden brooch with four small gems around the rim which
sat in the center of the bow on the chest. This had been her uniform as
the leader of the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon.
Neo-Queen Serenity opened the uniform's frame like the cover of a
book. Behind it, a blazing gemstone levitated above its plush pillow. She
cupped it in her hands. This was her birthright from her mother: the
Empyrean Silver Crystal, the very same crystal she had once used to become
Sailor Moon--and the one her daughter now used to do the same thing.
Neo-Queen Serenity sighed. If it had been her choice, she never
would have let her daughter become a Sailor. She knew full well that being
a leader often elevates one as a target (as if being a target as a princess
wasn't already bad enough...) But due to the dual natures of their powers,
both Ronin and Scout, Rini and Rachel had worked out a dual leadership.
Neo-Queen Serenity could only wish that she and Raye had been _that_ close
all those years ago...
Besides, Sailor Pluto had once said that back on the Moon, during
the Silver Millennium, the Moon Princess was not a fighter, and was never
meant to be. But nobody knew Sailor powers were hereditary...
Neo-Queen Serenity replaced the Silver Crystal in its position,
and closed the frame over it. As she left the Trophy Room, she noticed,
with a hint of disappointment, that the Sailors' current transformation gems
were all here in their cases. Then again, she thought, no one had been
crazy enough to attack Crystal Tokyo since the Black Moon Family incident
nearly eight and a half centuries ago...
The beach that the five girls had chosen to spend their day at was
technically a lagoon, with short crystalline rocks in a crescent shape
extending from either side of the beach's warm white sand.
The five girls were now laying out their towels and equipment.
Three of them had chosen to wear traditional one-piece suits: Rachel in a
red suit with orange and yellow blazes, Cody in an orange racing-style
Speedo, and Rini in a Pepto-Bismol pink model. The two others, however,
had not.
Jessica was wearing not only a dark and light blue striped one-piece
suit, but also UV sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat and an oversized white
shirt which looked, on her, more like a lab coat. She had placed a parasol
to shade her spot. As if all these precautions were not enough, Jessica was
spreading sunscreen on her legs and arms.
Melinda too was putting on sunscreen. She was wearing a lime green
bikini which would have gotten her arrested for indecent exposure, if she
didn't have diplomatic immunity, so to speak.
Jessica tried to get one more squirt of sunscreen for her bottle,
but failed. "Hey, Melinda, can I borrow your sunscreen?"
"Sure." Melinda handed it over.
"SPF 2?" Jessica read, tossing it back. "That's not even worth
using!"
"Suit yourself," Melinda replied as she settled, face down, onto
her beach towel. "I just want a good tan."
The other three had more pressing concerns than sunscreen or
suntans.
"I'm the best swimmer here," Cody boasted.
"I bet Rini or I could beat you," Rachel replied calmly.
"You're on," Cody said. She turned to Melinda. "How about you,
Melinda? Wanna race?"
"Nope," Melinda said laconically.
"Why not? Are you chicken or just plain lazy?"
"I'm not lazy," Melinda replied, voice muffled by the towel. "I
just know how much you hate losing to me."
Cody flushed angrily, then turned to Jessica. "And you?"
"No thanks," Jessica replied politely.
"Okay then," Cody said. "You can judge. We're going to swim across
the lagoon, from end to end." She waded out into the water, Rachel and Rini
following in her wake.
Jessica cracked open a thick book from the stack next to her.
"Aren't you going to watch them?"
Melinda turned her head to Jessica's side and opened one eye. "No,
I...what is that?"
"What's what?"
"Those books. Jessica, you're here to relax."
"This _is_ how I relax," Jessica insisted.
Just like her mother, Melinda thought. "What subject is it this
time?"
"You mean this book?" Jessica indicated the one she was reading.
"Hebrew."
Melinda sighed inwardly. Jessica was an excellent linguist. She
spoke a dozen languages fluently that Melinda knew of, and presumably two
dozen more that she didn't know about. Still, Jessica was begging the
question. "Why?"
"I found some interesting scrolls in the third basement of the
palace library."
"And the other books?"
"They're refresher courses," Jessica replied. "I'm in the 'S's now:
Sanskrit, Swahili, and Swedish."
"What about Spanish?"
"Are you kidding? Spanish is easy," Jessica said. She switched to
Spanish. "/You should try learning other languages too. It's fun./"
Melinda closed her eye and turned her head back to the other side.
"No speak-o el Spanish-o," she muttered.
Jessica smiled at her friend, then returned to her textbook.
The three racers swam to the north end of the lagoon and floated
there, ready to begin.
"Any specific stroke?" Rachel asked, tying up her long hair.
"Nope," Cody replied smugly. "Use whatever one you think you can
beat me with."
Rachel finished with her hair, putting in the third and final tie.
"Whenever you're ready."
Cody gestured to Rini, who was undoing her traditional hairstyle and
was pinning it back like Rachel had. "I'll let her say the word. Anytime,
Princess."
Rini pretended not to notice the sarcasm with which Cody's last word
had been spoken. "Okay, everyone," she said as they lined up: Rachel in the
middle, with Cody on her left and Rini on her right. "Three...two...one...
go!"
Cody beat the other two at the start by a split-second as each
settled into a comfortable, yet fast, freestyle stroke. Cody quickly
extended her lead--first one, then two, and now three lengths, at the
halfway point of the race. Cody switched to a backstroke now, as she
watched the other two laboring to keep up with her.
"Come on, turtles!" she taunted. "I thought you said this was going
to be a race!" Cody returned to her freestyle stroke with a wave of
laughter.
Rachel laughed to herself. Cody had just given her the opportunity
she had waited for. Already Rachel had closed the gap to two lengths. Cody
had two flaws whenever she raced: first, that she was too cocky, although
that was more of a general fault. That mistake had just manifested itself.
The second was that Cody didn't know what "pacing yourself" meant.
She ran every race flat out from the start, almost always taking a large
early lead, as if expecting her opponents to give up because they were so
far behind. In long-distance contests such as this one, her strategy often
failed, making the final result of the race much closer than Cody would have
liked.
Cody's second flaw was already beginning to tell. Just as easily as
Cody had racked up her early lead, Rachel began to take it back, with Rini a
close half-length behind her.
Rachel noticed the end of the lagoon looming closer. She checked
the positions of her opponents: Cody a half-length ahead, Rini a half-length
behind. She put on a final burst of speed and beat Cody by a stroke,
slapping the wall a half-second before her. Rini finished a second after
Cody.
"I won!" Cody announced.
"Sorry," Rachel countered. "I beat you by a stroke."
"No you didn't!" Cody insisted. "Rini, did you see who won?"
"Uh-uh," Rini shook her head. "I was still swimming."
"Ask Jessica," Rachel suggested. "She's the judge."
"Jessica!" Cody yelled at the distant figures on the beach.
"Jessica!"
"They can't hear us," Rini told her, after Cody's fifth shout.
"Let's go swim back to the beach and then ask her."
Jessica was still studying her Hebrew text as the three racers swam
into the shallows.
"Jessica!" Cody called, finally attracting her attention.
"Hi, guys," she replied, barely looking up from her book.
"Didn't you hear me yelling at you?" Cody asked as she raced up out
of the water and onto the beach, kicking sand on Melinda.
"No, I didn't," Jessica said, as she moved her textbooks so Cody
wouldn't continue to drip water on them.
"I swear, Cody," Melinda's muffled voice said, "you kick sand on me
one more time and you're going for another dip--only this one won't be
voluntary."
Cody ignored her. "So, who won?"
"Umm...Rini did."
"Wrong answer," Cody exploded. "Rini came in last. You weren't
even watching the race, were you?"
"Well..."
Jessica yelled in surprise as Cody tossed her over her shoulder like
a sack of potatoes, spraying Melinda with sand in the process. Jessica
barely had time to drop her textbook before Cody threw her into the sea.
Cody had time to laugh exactly twice before she too was taken by
surprise and lifted effortlessly into the air.
"I warned you," Melinda said before she released Cody into the water
with a huge splash. She followed in after Cody. As Cody came up for a gulp
of air, Melinda forced her head back under.
"What's the matter, Cody?" Melinda taunted. "I thought you liked
swimm--"
In a split second, their positions had been reversed. Cody had
grasped Melinda's forearm, which had been holding her under, with both hands
and pulled down, dragging Melinda under the surface.
"Let's see how _you_ like it--" Cody staggered back, releasing
Melinda, as a spray of salt water shot into her eyes, courtesy of Rini.
Cody rubbed her eyes and blinked rapidly, finally clearing them.
"So, Princess, want to play?"
The beach party quickly degenerated into a dunking contest.
What the five Sailors did not notice in between the splashing and
submerging was the appearance of a very familiar-looking spacecraft above
Crystal Tokyo--although one that had not been seen for nearly eight hundred
fifty years...
High noon found the Neo-Queen and King seated on their crystal
thrones. The throne room was now open to their subjects who had problems
or disputes which they needed the Neo-Queen to resolve.
Usually this meant two hours of waiting for subjects who never came
(although technically they were supposed to stay for four hours; the
Neo-Queen still had some of the old Serena's familiar habits). The last
problem had been an old woman whose young grandson had received a poisonous
bite from a snake. The old woman had wanted Neo-Queen Serenity to use her
Silver Crystal to heal the boy. She had teleported the old woman and boy to
Titan Castle to see Princess Saturn instead; Serenity's Silver Crystal only
healed against black magic.
Neo-Queen Serenity suppressed a yawn as four stooped figures,
wearing brown cloaks, hobbled into the throne room. About time, she
thought. Some action...
"Your Majesty?" the leading one said, in a tremulous waver. "We
have a problem."
"Yes?" the King asked. "What is it?"
"With all due respect, King Endymion," the leading one said, "I
would rather talk to Neo-Queen Serenity."
King Endymion grumbled, but kept silent.
"Tell me about your problem, then," the Neo-Queen prompted.
"There is one who has usurped our lands and tried to ruin us. We
are but old people, powerless to stop this one."
"But I have the power to change this," Neo-Queen Serenity said. "I
will right this wrong for you."
"Good."
The voice had changed, from that of a weak old crone to that of one
who was used to demanding, and receiving, respect. The leading figure
straightened up, as did the other three, who also removed their cloaks. One
wore a gray gown and had gray-white hair; the second had a pink outfit and
short pink hair; and the third was an enormous black woman, easily a foot
taller than the others, who wore a black leather jumpsuit. The leader, who
still kept her cloak, spoke again.
"You're in my seat."
King Endymion started toward them. "What are--"
"Sit down," the cloaked one ordered.
"You doing--"
"I said sit down," the cloaked one repeated and extended a hand from
the folds of the cloak. King Endymion was thrown backward into his throne,
cracking off the top half of it. He slumped forward onto the floor with a
groan. Neo-Queen Serenity sat staring, too stunned to do anything.
"That's all right," the cloaked one said philosophically. "I only
needed one anyway."
The word broke the Neo-Queen's trance. "Who are you? What do you
want? Why are you here?"
"Since it's obvious your Sailor bodyguards aren't here to rescue
you," the cloaked one replied, "I suppose I can answer your questions. What
we want is your kingdom. That should be obvious by now; after all, our
little story was about you. Who are we? You may call me the Commander;
these are my colleagues Pearl, Coral, and Opal."
"Names of gemstones," Neo-Queen Serenity observed.
"Very good, Serenity," the cloaked one commended. "Do you remember
who else among your enemies had names of gemstones?"
"All of them--except ," Neo-Queen Serenity recalled.
"Do the words Black Moon mean anything to you?" asked the Commander.
"The Black Moon Family?" Neo-Queen Serenity asked, puzzled. "We got
rid of you seventeen hundred fif--eight hundred fif--a long time ago," she
finally decided on.
"Time travel's a lot of fun, isn't it?" the Commander said. "You
only defeated the first and second waves of our attack. We were sent to the
future--which is now the present--in case they failed. Since you're still
alive, I can only conclude they were indeed unsuccessful." The Commander's
fingers snapped, and the three others began to close in on the Neo-Queen.
"There you go, Serenity, the answers to your final three questions. Now, if
you don't mind, I have a kingdom to take over."
Neo-Queen Serenity instinctively threw her hands up over her face to
ward off the coming attack. A streak of silver blazed over her head,
sending the three sprawling.
The Neo-Queen looked over her shoulder. A black-skirted,
green-haired Sailor stood there, wielding the oversized key which had given
the Commander's companions a splitting headache.
"Sailor Pluto!" Neo-Queen Serenity gasped.
"Head for the Trophy Room!" Sailor Pluto ordered.
Neo-Queen Serenity needed no further prompting. She raced out of
the throne room at top speed. The Commander made a move to follow her, but
was warned back by Sailor Pluto's Time Staff.
"Sailor Pluto," the Commander mused. "I thought you weren't
supposed to leave the Gate of Time."
Sailor Pluto ignored the implied accusation. She glanced at the
crumpled body of King Endymion, then stared hard at the Commander, garnet
eyes blazing with fury, Time Staff at the ready. "You will pay for what
you have done."
"I think not," the Commander said as the three arose from the floor.
"Get her."
Neo-Queen Serenity ran through the halls of the Crystal Palace,
headed for the Trophy Room. It wasn't exactly fair to say that the Silver
Crystal was the only thing on her mind--it was the overriding thought, but
there were others flitting around in the back of her mind.
Sailor Pluto...not supposed to interfere...only when things _really_
bad...timeline threatened...Endymion hurt...defending me...like Tuxedo
Mask...just like good old days...got injured a lot back then too...
Neo-Queen Serenity entered the Trophy Room, passing by the racks of
transformation items. Useless...without right people...unable to defend
Palace...defend me...defenseless themselves...
She threw open the hidden door and retrieved the Silver Crystal.
Can't use now...not close enough...
Neo-Queen Serenity rushed from the Trophy Room, overriding thought
now changed, headed back to the throne room.
Help Pluto...defeat enemy...
Sailor Pluto had been doing rather well, considering it was a three-
on-one fight (the Commander had chosen to sit back and watch). It was close
quarters fighting, which meant she couldn't use her Dead Scream power, but
then again she hadn't spent an eternity (literally) learning how to fight
with a staff for nothing.
The fight had begun perfectly for Sailor Pluto. She had used the
element of surprise to stun her enemies during her entrance, removed
Neo-Queen Serenity from harm's way, and help was now on the way in the form
of the Silver Crystal, the ultimate trump card.
The pink and gray girls had been easy to control and defeat. They
didn't seem to be used to physical fighting anyway. Sailor Pluto supposed
they were either the brains of the group or had some sort of magical talent.
No matter; in any case, they were both effectively neutralized.
The black one had been the problem. Sailor Pluto was six feet tall
(well, six-foot three in these boots), but the black one was six inches
taller than that, putting her at roughly six-foot nine and three hundred
pounds plus, with very little of that as fat.
She definitely knew how to fight, too. After Sailor Pluto had
dispatched the first two girls, the black one had started to advance on her.
Sailor Pluto smashed her in both kneecaps with the Time Staff, blows which
should have crippled her.
The black one grinned and kept advancing.
Sailor Pluto slashed at the black one's head, opening a deep gash
where the jagged edges of the end of the key had raked across her temple.
The black one's grin widened. She continued to advance.
Sailor Pluto aimed the Time Staff directly at the black one's
breastbone.
The black one ducked under the Time Staff, caught it, and yanked it
from Sailor Pluto's grasp in one fluid motion. Her infuriating grin was now
ear-to-ear.
Sailor Pluto tried a hand strike to the black one's chin. She
slapped it away. Sailor Pluto kicked at the black one's midsection. The
black one used the Time Staff to block it, which cut open Sailor Pluto's
upper thigh on her left leg.
The black one definitely knew her hapkido and karate, Sailor Pluto
had to admit. Back to basics, she decided--back to one of the first martial
arts she had learned, one she was almost certain that the black one had
never seen before: pencak silat.
Pencak silat is an Indonesian martial art, similar to karate in that
it is an empty-hand fighting style. Its moves are based upon evasion and
lightning-quick strikes that knock the opponent off-balance. Because of
these features, it is aptly called the dancing martial art.
Sailor Pluto ducked the black one's right hook and hit her with
three kidney punches. She avoided a swipe of the Time Staff and got in four
quick strikes to the black one's ribs.
Sailor Pluto dodged a backhand slash of the Time Staff and closed in
for a third time. She had hit the black one twice in the midsection when
she realized her mistake.
The black one had continued to follow through with the slash,
bringing the Time Staff behind her back and grabbing it with her right hand.
The Time Staff was now screaming directly toward Sailor Pluto's head.
Sailor Pluto reacted instinctively, throwing her arm up to block the
Staff.
It made no difference.
The Staff smashed into her upper arm, continuing on into her left
temple. Sailor Pluto heard the bone snap an instant before she was
catapulted across the room.
Sailor Pluto knew she had a concussion as she rose unsteadily to one
knee, gently holding her now useless left arm just above the fracture.
The black one took Sailor Pluto's extended left leg as an open
invitation. With a perfect home-run swing, she shattered Sailor Pluto's
tibia and fibula. Sailor Pluto pitched forward, twisting and landing hard
on her right shoulder, but still jarring the broken left.
The other two girls had now recovered and were ready to get their
revenge too.
It was at that exact moment that Neo-Queen Serenity returned. Shock
and revulsion filled her deep blue eyes.
Wish she didn't have to see this, Sailor Pluto thought through the
pain.
The horror was gone from Neo-Queen Serenity's eyes now, replaced by
the cold fury of vengeance--of justice.
Although out of breath from her hurried journey, Neo-Queen Serenity
pointed the Silver Crystal at the four Black Moon warriors and managed one
word. "Cosmic..."
All light in the room somehow seemed to begin to flow into the
Silver Crystal.
The Commander was suddenly galvanized into action. "Everybody
teleport back to the ship now!"
The Commander emphasized this order by vanishing, along with the
pink and gray girls.
The black one had a parting shot. She hurled the Time Staff like
a javelin at Neo-Queen Serenity.
"Moon..."
The Time Staff skittered away, clanging to the floor near the
prostrate Sailor Pluto.
The Silver Crystal was no longer silver. It was now glowing--
radiating--with its own pink light.
Neo-Queen Serenity did not realize it, but she was now the only
conscious person left in the throne room.
Sailor Pluto appeared at the doorway of the Trophy Room and almost
collapsed there. She hauled herself up, using the Time Staff for support,
and staggered inside, with the Staff as a crude crutch.
She had already separated her mind from her body, in the way that
most do when first suffering a traumatic injury. Her mind knew she didn't
have much time left, both in terms of Neo-Queen Serenity's building power
and the fact that she would likely soon pass out.
She simply took the first set of transformation pens she came to
and disappeared.
The four Black Moon warriors appeared on the bridge of their
spaceship, the black one a couple of seconds after the other three. Each
scurried to their positions: Pearl at the helm, Coral at the time machine,
and Opal near the weapons.
The Commander barked orders at them before they even had a chance to
sit down. "Simultaneously: Pearl, fire thrusters; Opal, set shields to
maximum; Coral, set temporal coordinates to 1994. On count of three..."
The next word echoed throughout the ship, but it was not the
Commander's.
"Power!"
"Three!" the Commander screamed.
Blazing pink light spewed from the Silver Crystal, directly toward
the Black Moon ship and its retreating occupants.
Parts one and two of the Commander's escape plan worked perfectly.
Part three did not.
Coral had managed to set all but the last digit of the year when
the time machine activated.
Neo-Queen Serenity was focusing all of her heart and soul into the
Silver Crystal for her attack. The Crystal had been subjected to such power
only once before, and it reacted now in the same way it had then.
It shattered.
Neo-Queen Serenity was hurled backward to the floor, unconscious.
Seven shards of crystal, each a different color of the rainbow,
danced in the air before they vanished.
The five girls may have missed the Black Moon ship earlier, but
there was no way they could miss the pink light which was now washing over
all of them.
"What the--" Jessica began.
Rini and Rachel stared at each other. "Palace is under attack..."
they said simultaneously.
"Let's go!" Cody finished. The five girls took off at a dead run
toward the Crystal Palace.
Sailor Pluto appeared in front of them and nearly collapsed again,
spilling the transformation pens to the sand as she began to fall. Rachel
caught her right arm while Cody grabbed her left.
Sailor Pluto's sharp intake of breath convinced the two that one of
them had just done something wrong. She turned her head to Cody, garnet
eyes glazed with pain. "Let go," she hissed.
Cody rarely obeyed orders without asking questions. This was one of
the few.
Melinda and Jessica were recovering the four pens. "My mom's old
one..." Melinda said, looking at the green one almost reverently.
Cody snatched the orange one and started to turn to Sailor Pluto,
but decided to make it a rhetorical question instead. "Why'd she bring us
these? They're almost worthless."
"They're better than nothing," Rachel responded, holding the red one
aloft. "Mars Power!"
Sailor Pluto turned to Rini. Her unfocused eyes made it seem as if
she were staring through her, but Rini knew Sailor Pluto was looking at her.
"Transform now..." she rasped.
"But I don't have the Silv..." Rini began to protest.
"Transform," Sailor Pluto croaked.
Rini nodded. "Moon Prism Power!"
The Black Moon ship reentered the time stream intact.
"Status report," the Commander ordered.
"I've got good news and bad news," Coral replied, "aside from the
obvious good news."
"You mean that we're alive?" asked the Commander.
Coral nodded.
"Continue."
"We had some hitchhikers on our journey: the shattered pieces of
Serenity's Silver Crystal. They're between the Earth and Moon now,
beginning to change orbit to enter Earth's atmosphere."
"Preparing to land in Tokyo," the Commander concluded. "Set a
course. We'll pick the crystals up before we join with our Black Moon
comrades."
"Here comes the bad news," Coral said. "It's not 1994. It's 1997.
I failed to set the last digit before we escaped."
"You certainly did," the Commander said coldly. "No matter. Pick
up the crystals. We can still destroy Serenity before she comes to power."
"The crystals will fall to Earth before we can reach them," Coral
said. "We're outside the orbit of Neptune now."
"A little heavy on the thrusters, weren't you?" the Commander asked
Pearl.
"Sorry," Pearl apologized. "We were running for our lives, you
know."
"Enough talk," the Commander declared. "Let's go."
"Computer has calculated 80% chance we don't have the fuel to reach
Earth," Coral reported quietly.
The Commander seemed ready to punch through something--or someone.
"Can anything else go wrong?"
"Nothing on the temporal disturbance scanner," Coral said hopefully.
The Commander's confidence returned. "Shut down all non-essential
systems and lay a course for Earth. Opal and I will be in the stasis pods.
You and Pearl will navigate the ship, in shifts, twelve hours on, twelve
off."
"But..." Pearl protested.
"But that's not fair?" the Commander supplied. "Yes, it is. You
two failed me. Opal did not. Pearl, you have the first shift. Keep an eye
on the temporal disturbance scanner and on the crystals. If anything
important happens, wake me."
The three others retreated, and Pearl was left alone.
Sailor Moon stood clothed in the basic Sailor uniform, but it was
entirely in shades of pink.
"I don't think I've seen _that_ outfit before," Sailor Venus
snickered.
"Matches your hair," Sailor Jupiter commented.
Sailor Pluto's harsh voice was a far cry from her usual clear-as-a-
bell voice. The fact that she was speaking in sentence fragments made her
twice as hard to understand.
"What happened?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"Black Moon...attacked Palace...hurt King..."
Sailor Moon's jaw dropped. "Wh--what about Mom?" she stammered.
"Don't know...used Crystal...full power..."
Sailor Moon was crushed. Everyone knew what _that_ meant: the
original Queen Serenity had done the same thing nearly three thousand years
ago when Beryl had attacked the Moon Palace.
"How many of them?" Sailor Jupiter asked.
"Four..."
The five Sailors exchanged glances, each meaning the same thing:
Four warriors did _this_?
"Seven-foot...black monster..." Sailor Pluto mumbled.
"Where are they now?" asked Sailor Mars.
"Escaped...time travel...19...97..."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sailor Venus said. "Open a portal
and let's go!"
"No...first get...Silver Crystal..."
"Head for the Palace, everyone," Sailor Moon said halfheartedly.
"Not Palace...Crystal lost...1997..."
"Where is it?" Sailor Mars asked.
"Silver Crystal...shattered...seven shards...Rainbow Crystals..."
Sailor Moon was now almost completely shellshocked.
"Okay, here's the plan," Sailor Mars decided. "We'll retrieve the
Rainbow Crystals, go to Tokyo, have Serena repair the Silver Crystal, and
bring them back with us to Crystal Tokyo to revive Neo-Queen Serenity."
"No...don't go...Tokyo...all die..."
"What do you mean, we'll all die?" Sailor Venus asked angrily.
"Well, let's see," Sailor Mercury said. "The enemies in Tokyo that
year were--oh, yeah, I see what she means."
"We'll get the Rainbow Crystals, then come back here and decide what
to do then," Sailor Mars said. "Open a portal please, Sailor Pluto."
Sailor Pluto wobbily waved the Time Staff. A portal opened on the
surface of the water. Its edges vibrated crazily, and its usually gently
shimmering center looked more like a sea in a hurricane.
Sailor Venus jumped in first, followed by Sailors Mars, Mercury, and
Jupiter. Sailor Moon went last, still not looking quite like herself.
"Hurry...timeline...changing..." Sailor Pluto whispered.
A gray cat came charging toward the portal. Diana leapt into the
air just as the portal flickered from existence. The Time Staff caught her
in midair.
"Cats...hate...water..." Sailor Pluto managed before her eyes rolled
back and she fell unconscious.
(
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